Category Archives: 2015

We spent the last day of the exploring part of our trip wandering around the village filled with Amish crafts and shops and enjoying beautiful weather with no humidity (really good hair day), mild breezes, sunny skies, and perfect temperatures.

Decorations at store in Berlin, OH

Many of the Amish supplement their farm income by selling wares they make to the area shops.  We saw 3-D wood carved picture with such detail you had to stand in awe.  There is even an appliance store in this area that sells wood burning stoves and gas refrigerators because many of the Amish believe having electricity come into their homes would expose them to too much of our world.

We ate lunch in an Amish Bakery and Cafe and dinner at a Swiss restaurant called the Chalet in the Valley.

Chalet in the Valley Restaurant near Berlin, OH

We have had a wonderful trip but we both agree its time to come home.  We miss everything about our home and friends and need to get connected again.  Thank you for your interest in our blog and we hope they weren’t too boring or as bad as watching someone’s vacation home movies.  See you soon.

We left Michigan and headed to Millersburg, Ohio for a short visit to an Amish Community that is tied with Lancaster, Pennsylvania in size as the largest.  We took a tour of an actual Amish farm with a tour guide who has studied the Amish religion for many years and gave us insight we never had before.

There are Amish communities in over 30 states.  The Lancaster community is one sect but this Ohio community actually has 10 or 11 sects ranging from very conservative to very liberal and everything in between.  Our guide is confident that because of their attitude of separation from the world, the Amish will be the last civilization to be standing with a retention rate of 90% for the most conservative sect.  They live by the Bible with the most conservative interpretation including women wearing hats (1 Corinthians) and being adverse to having their photographs taken (Ten Commandments – no graven images).  Their position on not allowing electricity into their homes has more to do with not accepting our worldly lifestyle than anything else.  They use gas for other appliances and even use car batteries to power simple electric lamps in their homes.  One thing neither of us knew was that most Amish still speak Pennsylvania Dutch that they learn at home first and then English is their second language.

We started our tour with Rosie, an Amish young lady who works in the barn with every farm animal you can name including some Pot Bellied Pigs that are not typical on a working farm because they are only good as pets.

Barn at Yoder’s Amish Farm

Baby Goats at Amish Farm – Berlin, OH

Lambs

Belgium Work Horse

Ducks at Amish Farm

Then we toured a modest home for a very conservative family with no decorations of any kind on the walls or windows.  Everything in the home was functional or not at all.  Even the simple window coverings were hung on string rather than curtain rods.

Kitchen of Amish Farmhouse

Sitting room of Amish home

From there we went to a more modern home with some color painted on the walls and furnishings even if it was mostly blue and browns.

Typical bedroom in more modern Amish home

We finished our tour with a honest to goodness buggy ride and then on to Mrs. Yoder’s Kitchen for dinner of typical Amish food.

Carriage/buggy

Of course, the evening was ended with the second Republican Debate streaming on our tablet (no cable).  Hope you watched it as well because before we vote, we all have to be well informed!

On our last day in Michigan, we spent the day visiting the Greenfield Village created in 1929 by Henry Ford as an educational facility emphasizing history and innovation.  Over the years the Village has grown to include buildings and exhibits acquired from all over the mid-west, a perfect adjunct to the Henry Ford Museum, while continuing to house a Charter School open to all children by lottery drawing.

Some of the highlights included visiting a real railroad roundhouse with one of the trains from Henry Ford’s railroad that he used to ship the cars;

Railroad Roundhouse

 Edison’s Menlo Park Complex where most of the work for the incandescent light bulb was done, and seeing the workshop and factory where the first automobiles were produced.

As always, for me, the highlight was lunch in the Eagle Tavern which was built in Clinton, Michigan as a stagecoach stop in the 1850’s.

Eagle Tavern at Greenfield Village

We were served pickled vegetables, a black-eyed pea salad, and assorted rolls and mini-muffins as soon as we sat down.  We ordered iced mint tea with our entrees of braised rabbit and vegetables and corn meal dusted trout with root vegetables.  We decided to skip dessert so that we could have it later on in the afternoon.

Check out the pictures Jim took while we were in the village.

View inside Greenfield Village

Working farm at Greenfield Village

Edison’s Menlo Park Lab

Sarah Jordan Boarding House where Edison’s employees stayed – 1st house with electricity

Electric wires going into boarding house

Limestsone house circa 1600

Main Street showing Orville Wright Cycle Shop

Replica (1/4 scale) of the original Ford Motor Company factory

Henry Ford’s childhood home

FINAL IMPRESSIONS OF MICHIGAN

Our final day in Michigan, we had the best weather of the eight weeks we spent in this beautiful state.  It was not too hot, or too cold, or too windy and actually perfect temperature with clear sunny skies.  I hope for the people of Michigan, the weather we experienced on the rest of the trip was unusual and their summers normally are better.

The people of Michigan are very NICE people and many of them are strong, self-sufficient individuals and come from hearty stock whether they came from the rugged individualists who struck out to settle the west coast or the innovators like Henry Ford, the leaders of Frankenmuth, or the miners of the UP.

Although we never did encounter those huge mosquitoes we were warned about, we did have some bug issues.  At the Soo locks we ran into something called May Flies that are the Michigan similar to our Love Bugs; they have no purpose but get really annoying.  But these flies seem to be different than their Florida cousins in the fact that they are more abundant and they bite!

If you have never seen the coastlines of Michigan, make it an item on your bucket list because, although diverse and different, whether on Lake Michigan, Lake Superior or Lake Huron, they are gorgeous!

On Saturday we moved farther south towards Detroit to St Clair, Michigan positioned to visit the Ford Rouge Plant, Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village.  Unfortunately, our truck issue was not properly resolved and Friday night on the way to return the rental car, the warning light came on again.  Nothing could be done over the weekend so we decided to move and deal with it again Monday morning.

After church on Sunday we drove around an area our friends Sue and Jim used to live in and took in some of the local sites.  First stop was  Yates Cider Mill with no idea what we would see until we turned the corner and saw all the other thousands of people who thought Sunday afternoon was a good time to come.

There was face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo and the primary attraction was 30 minute-long lines to buy apple cider and fresh hot donuts and turnovers.  Except for the extra things, this place was very similar to Barber’s in North Carolina.  While waiting on line you could smell the fresh baked donuts and cider and of course, we gave in and stood in line.

After that, we drove by Erma’s Frozen Custard which looked good but didn’t sound good to our “older” tummies so soon after donuts and cider, so we headed to Nino Salvaggio’s International Market.

 We were not inside this incredible grocery store for 3 minutes before we agreed if we had one in Ocala, we would be in trouble.  The produce area had every fruit and vegetable you could name and many I never heard of.  Row after row of fabulous food options that you would never see in most other stores and they all looked good.  The deli area had an olive bar with maybe 30 varieties of olives, salads, and fresh meat options.  There was a coffee area with coffee beans of every flavor you could want and a grinder to allow you to grind your own with multiple settings depending on how you made your coffee.  We found some of the Traverse City Cherry coffee we were served on our Elk viewing dinner and hope we can make it taste as good.

Monday morning Jim left early to be at the dealership when they opened to see about the truck.  This had to be a priority because without the truck, we would never get back to Ocala.  By 10:30 he was back with the truck in tip top condition and we were on our way to the Ford Rouge Plant Tour. Since it was lunch time we stopped for a sandwich at the Michigan Cafe which was located on the grounds of  The Henry Ford Museum.  This Veggie sandwich was something.

Veggie Sandwich on Focaccia Bread w/Sausage and Chicken Soup

This plant is on the national historical registry and is where Henry Ford first used vertical integration in manufacturing and is still in operation as the plant that produces the F-150 trucks for Ford today.

Bus to Rouge Factory Tour

View of Rouge Plant complex

As I understand it, vertical integration is where every part of the production from receiving the limestone, coal, iron ore, etc to make the metals and parts to assembling is all contained at one site.  Henry Ford was able to improve the production time for a Ford automobile from one every 12 hours to one every 93 minutes using this method.  Today this plant produces 1,200 vehicles every day or one every minute.  Before the Depression this plant had over 100,000 employees involved in every aspect of the production of the cars.  Today this plant employs 6,000 workers.  It is named the Rouge Plant because it sits on the Rouge River with a deep water dock to receive all the necessary raw materials from the freighters.  What a genius mind Henry Ford had to put all this together.  Today, the plant is still modernizing and innovating with ecological advances like their “living roof”.  Instead of conventional roofing materials, they have used a living vegetation to roof one of their huge buildings which lasts twice as long as conventional roofing material, keeps the building 10 degrees cooler, saving on electricity costs and allows the rain water to reenter the atmosphere and not be wasted.

View of Roof Top of Rouge Plant – Garden Roof

Legacy Gallery at Rouge Plant

1929 Model A

1932 Ford V8

1949 Ford

1955 Thunderbird

1965 Mustang

Connected to the plant tour is the Henry Ford Museum and I would say a “must see” for anyone who finds himself in this area.  We spent hours in the plant and museum and highly recommend it.

West Entrance to Bronner’s
Well we finally made it to Bronner’s and what an adventure.  Here’s some Trivia about this store:

• 2.2 acres of salesroom displaying over 50,000 items.
• 27 acres of landscaped grounds with 7.35 acres of buildings on the campus
• The parking lot accommodates 1,250 cars and 50 buses
• The electric bill averages $1,250 per day
• Approximately 100,000 lights illuminate the 1/2 mile long Christmas Lane every evening
• There are over 50 styles of Nativity scenes in the store
• Each year they sell 2 million ornaments, over 400,000 feet of garland, and over 125,000 light sets which equates to 485 miles of light cords.
• Their staff personalizes over 400,000 ornaments per year.
• They say they get over 2 million visitors per year, but I didn’t see anyone at the door counting

We walked around this store for a little over 3 hours, mostly because I kept getting lost and I am certain we missed seeing every single thing.  The entire time we were in the store, Christmas music was playing and we both found ourselves singing along most of the time.  If this place doesn’t get you in the mood for Christmas, you are never going to get there.  Here are some pictures Jim took to try to show you the enormity of the store, but like so many other things, the picture is not like being there in person.

Entry area as we entered the West Entrance
 Aisles seem to go on forever  This is the  department where they will personalize any ornament for FREE

This place is so big they have a snack bar with seating area, which of course we had to take advantage of.

Instead of spending the afternoon wandering around Bronner’s as planned, we spent the afternoon in the Customer Lounge of the local Ford Dealership.  Yup we have truck problems!

Over the past 6 weeks, a warning message would randomly pop up on the instrument panel of the truck.  Each time we would take the truck to a local Ford dealership and each time we were told that they didn’t find anything wrong and it was nothing to worry about.  This time they found something wrong and have to order the parts which will not arrive until Friday at the earliest.  This means we stay in Vassar until the parts are received and truck is fixed, either Friday afternoon or Monday.

When all was said and done, we had to drive to a nearby town to get a rental car, since the Ford Garage did not have any loaner’s available, while Ford worked on the truck which took the rest of the afternoon.  We arrived at Bronner’s after dinner at about 8:00 p.m. and it is going to be fabulous.  We walked in just to take a peek, because they close at 9:00 p.m., and we were amazed.

Part of the campus is a replica of the Silent Night Memorial Chapel of Oberndorf, near Salzburg, Austria that was built in 1937 to mark the spot where Silent Night was first performed on Christmas Eve in 1818.

Oberndorf Chapel – Replica from Salzburg, Austria

With the song playing softly in the background inside and out, you can feel the reverence and simple beauty of that well known song.  Did you remember that the first performance of that song was using guitar accompaniment because the organ was being repaired?  And that is the way it is being played in this chapel.

Inside Chapel

Stain Glass window in Chapel

Chandelier in Chapel

By this time, the lights in the parking lot had turned on and we drove around taking in the many light displays scattered everywhere.

Entrance to Chapel at Bronner’s – Frankenmuth, MI

Nativity Scene outside of Chapel

Nativity display on property

I can’t wait to go back tomorrow and take in as much of this store’s 45 acres as my little legs can handle.

Back in 1959 someone had the idea of revitalizing the German heritage of a small Michigan town by refurbishing one of its buildings using Alpine design, and it is now the number one location to visit in the State and Mackinac Island is number two.  There are over 3 million visitors a year who come to see this Alpine village with all things Bavarian including hotels, restaurants, cheese shops and everything else you can imagine.

Bavarian Inn on main street – Frankenmuth, MI

This was our Labor Day excursion from our campground just 20 or so miles away in Vassar.  (Who knew I would ever be able to say, “I went to Vassar”).  We arrived in time to take a paddle boat cruise on the Cass River that runs through the town.  This boat is authentic to the extent it can navigate in shallow water and is propelled by the paddle wheel that only dips into the water 1 foot deep.

Bavarian Belle Paddleboat on Cass River, Frankenmuth, MI

Wooden Covered Bridge in Frankenmuth – Built in 1979

Smokestacks down to go under bridge

It docks between a concrete walkway and a wooden covered bridge but its smoke stacks are too high to fit under the bridge so they, (like other boats of the era) can dip the smoke stacks when they need to.  Kind of ingenious, I think.

After walking around to see all the shops, we had a dinner of their famous chicken and Wiener schnitzel, or as we call it in the South, Fried Chicken and breaded veal cutlet with cheese potato puffs.  I never realized that German cooking involved so much frying.

Yesterday was a rainy day so it was a good day to catch up on our chores around the RV but we went to Famous Dave’s BBQ for dinner where we ordered a feast for two.

They are not exaggerating with that name because it included ½ of a chicken, ½ pound of pulled pork, ½ slab of ribs, the best French Fries ever, baked beans, cole slaw, steamed broccoli, and corn muffins served in something that looked like a trash can lid and sat on a rack.  Trust me, most of that food is now in our refrigerator and will become a few more meals for us this week.

The rain has stopped and a cold front will be moving in soon.  Our adventure for today is back in Frankenmuth to Bonner’s Christmas Shop touted to be the “World’s Largest Christmas Shop”.  We’ll see.

Who knew of all the places we have gone, Alpena would hold one of the major highlights.  I never even heard of Alpena and when I asked Jim what we were going to do here, he had no idea.  We did what we normally do when we get into an unfamiliar town; we went to the Visitor Center/Chamber of Commerce to find out what not to miss in the area.  As usual, we were handed a fist full of brochures and books showing the options and started a plan, including downtown walking tour, area lighthouses, and local restaurants.

Alpena Light

Jetty at Alpena, MI

Home in Alpena, MI

Our first day, we decided to eat lunch at the Fresh Palette serving “organic gourmet” salads, soups and sandwiches.

A large number of other visitors and locals thought it was a good place to have lunch as well and the food was really good.  Our plan was to drive north again to the 40-Mile Pointe Lighthouse, named because it is 40 miles sailing distance from Mackinaw Point.

40 mile Lighthouse near Rogers City, MI

This lighthouse actually has a volunteer keeper program that provides camp sites for volunteers with RVs.  Out on the beach near the lighthouse is 150’ of the side of the Joseph S. Fay, a wooden ship that sank during a terrible storm in 1905.

Close up of Shipwreck at 40 mile lighthouse

While driving to the lighthouse, I found an ad in the Chamber book about Alpena that sounded like something we had to do and called to make reservations.  We were set for a new adventure on Saturday evening for four hours, starting at 6 p.m.  This one-of-a-kind adventure is voted a USA TODAY “10 Best” right here in Alpena, Michigan and if you know people who are headed in this direction or who live in Michigan and have not done this, you must tell them about it.

We arrived at the Thunder Bay Resort right on time, and found what looked like a golf clubhouse with a full restaurant and starter for the first hole of a beautiful 18-hole golf course.  We met some of our fellow tourers and discovered they actually had an RV park connected to the Resort with full hook ups and very reasonable rates in addition to a lodge and separate Chalets for their guests.  Then two carriages pulled by Belgium Percheron draft horses arrived and we all loaded for the beginning of our adventure.

Carriage ride at Thunder Bay Resort – Hillman, MI

We were touring the 160 acres preserve for ELK Viewing (guaranteed because they own the preserve and the herd of about 60 elk).  Literally “over the river (Thunder Bay)

River on Carriage Ride

and through the woods we rode while we were entertained with stories of how the resort was begun and grown by the owners, information about Elk, and, of course, some jokes.  It was delightful and all I could think was how magical this would be in the snow.

After seeing the most majestic Elk, we headed to a cabin in the woods where a five course gourmet dinner was prepared on two 100-year-old wood burning stoves, complete with wine tasting or non-alcoholic sparkling grape juice.  The cabin was everything you would visualize when you say “cabin in the woods”; stone fireplace with roaring fire, and decorated with trophies of spectacular animals hunted over the years and antiques.

Old stoves that prepared meal at “The Cabin”

72 lb Beaver killed on property

What do you think about this 72 pound beaver!

Check out the menu:

Appetizer – Shrimp cocktail and pear and apple crepe

Soup – Homemade chicken noodle

Salad – Sweet Napa salad and croissant

Entrée-Crown roast pork and pan roasted red skin potatoes

Dessert-Italian Pizzelle stuffed with white chocolate mousse with raspberry sauce.

When we were finished, we were stuffed.

All during dinner, the owners visited the tables to personally visit with the guests and tell more about the Elk antlers.  We had no clue that every year elk lose their antlers and regrow them starting in early Spring and that unlike deer, whose “points” are enumerated on both antlers, elk are counted on only one side.  As a result, a six point elk actually has 12 points.

Everything was perfect and handled with extra attention to comfort and guest satisfaction.  According to the owners, the elk provide different optics depending on the season and we were just getting into the mating season where the bulls can be heard “bugling” to the females.

This is the kind of place you start planning your return trip before you ever leave.  I’m thinking of a six hour New Year’s Eve event with 11- course gourmet dinner, music and comedy entertainment including the elk viewing on a sleigh ride with heavy blankets through the snowy woods.  How does that sound?